Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Too much of a good Thing

Too much of a good thing

I designed a coffee-cup/ McDonalds Styrofoam Sweet tea cup holder and pop-riveted it to the dashboard of the Studebaker. Actually it looks “Rat Rod Cool” and is practical but the reason I designed it was to have something useful to show for all the welding practice I have been doing. I mean just welding two rectangular coupons together is boring so instead I weld up these cup holders. If I ever try selling welders at car shows, I’ll have something to souvenir the customers.

In addition I designed a gage fixture that fit’s the hole on the Studebaker dash where I think the heater controls or Radio used to go. The dash board curves and it had to follow the contour and I wanted it canted to make the gages more visible to the driver. I used too heavy a gage of steel but the prototype is coming along and will soon be finished. (When you screw up fabricating something you call it a “prototype.”) Then I will make one out of thinner gage or “aluminum.” Have you ever noticed the pronunciation of that metal by North American speakers of English versus the British? I won’t even attempt to write it phonetically.

I have to take my log dray over to a guy who works on them in the Town of Brooks. A log dray is a huge old device that tows behind a farm tractor and has hydraulic features that allows a boom to swing, grab a log and lift it into the bed. Mine was in the pole shed that collapsed a couple winters ago and I finally found someone with the knowledge and will to fix it.

Then this afternoon I need to go to Pfeiffer’s and pick up my ‘40 Ford Sedan…No it isn’t finished but I have a couple of months I can be working on it and the progress has slowed to a trickle. Summer is the busy time and I fear I will be dead and in the grave if I don’t intervene and speed the process along. This winter I will take it back when he has some slack time and doesn’t want to lay off employees.

Last night before dozing off I got to thinking about how everything seems to be tied together and how despite all the shortcomings I have cognitively how I have a “Connectional Mind.” When I go along through life my interests seem to connect even if they are dissimilar. It happens a lot with me and I can only wonder how many things pass that don’t connect…duh! Have you ever wondered about all the things you missed because you were too focused on what you thought was important? It’s like my life has been a walk through the desert on a moon less night with a key chain pen light, stumbling into cactus…ouch! And groping about trying to get a sense for where I’m going and oblivious to what might be passing unnoticed and unrealized just a few feet away.

When I was in the Military I had a high tempo job and I caught a lot of things that smarter people missed and sort of got by playing clean-up hitter. When I was processing out of the Army they warned about the change in OPTEMPO that would characterize the retired lifestyle. Sure enough things slowed down but it gave me a chance to pay a bit more attention to the wonder that surrounds us all, that rushes past almost unnoticed. Unfortunately, that was the story as my children grew up and I might have spent more time with them if I had it to do over again….Then again, they turned out OK and I might have screwed them up trying to live my expectations vicariously. My parents loved me but gave me a whole lot of room to grow up. On the one hand there was almost zero parental supervision and I suffered at times as a result, but on the other learned how to manage freedom and impose my own style of self-discipline, such as it was. I’ll quit rambling…Have to get going on the log dray.